Rampant Bitcoin breaches the $13000 mark

JOHANNESBURG – The recent roller-coaster of Bitcoin has seen the digital currency breach the $13000 (R175390) mark for the first time yesterday – with its market capitalisation now exceeding that of Boeing and that of New Zealand’s gross domestic product (GDP).

With yesterday’s spike, the cryptocurrency now has a total market value of about $217billion, following a more than 1000percent surge since the beginning of this year.

According to a World Bank report, New Zealand was worth $185bn in 2016. The GDP value of New Zealand represents 0.3percentof the world economy.